by Jarek Krajka
Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, Lublin, Poland
Stefan Batory Pallottine Secondary School, Lublin, Poland
jkrajka@batory.plo.lublin.pl

Nowadays, using computers in teaching subjects other than Information Technology becomes more and more common. In Poland, there are nationwide programs aimed at equipping schools with Internet labs and training teachers of all subjects to be ready to use the technology in their teaching and conduct their lessons with computers or with the Internet. A few examples might be given here: "Interklasa", a government-funded programme, works towards installing Internet labs in all types of schools all over the country. Once a lab is installed, also a few teachers are trained in computer skills, so that they could pass on that knowledge to their colleagues. Another example is the nationwide programme "Intel. Teach to the Future", where cascading training makes it possible for teachers of all subjects to become programme leaders and train fellow teachers at a local level. A similar idea, but in reference to teachers of English only, is reflected in the activities of The British Council Poland ICT for Teachers Project, where the special attention is devoted to selecting more prospective ICT course trainees, train them further to become ICT trainers and then provide support in organising and conducting their own courses at a local level. Thanks to all these efforts, Polish teachers, and especially teachers of English, develop their computer skills and acquire the aspects of methodology of using technology in teaching a foreign language. It is hoped that due to that teachers will be able to use technological advancements such as the Internet or computers to add an additional dimension to their classroom learning, impossible to be achieved in any other way.

It is the context in which "Teaching English with Technology" came into being - more and more schools with Internet labs, a growing number of teachers with computer literacy, but a great need for sharing and encouraging practical ideas, classroom tips, tricks of the trade, ready-to-use lesson plans. The Journal tries to provide that, at the same time being the discussion forum for teachers from all over the world. Of course, the technological conditions, the organisation of classes, the needs of students or the methods of teachers may differ in various parts of the globe, but surely the contributors and the readers are joined by a single, extremely powerful, idea: to exploit the capacities offered by the Net and computers to enhance learning.

It is my great pleasure, as the Editor-in-Chief, to present you with the new issue of "Teaching English with Technology", a free bi-monthly electronic journal published by IATEFL Poland Computer Special Interest Group. This month, the Journal features the article written by Jan Rusiecki from the University of Warsaw, Poland, one of the pioneers of CALL in Poland. He touches upon the issue of using the corpora and concordancing programs in teaching reading, outlining a computer software joining the capabilities of a dictionary, a corpus and a concordancer to make reading easier and more focused.

In the Internet and ESP column, Maria Jose Luzon Marco from the University of Zaragoza, Spain, describes another Web-based activity that can be used in ESP instruction, namely collaborative writing over the Internet. The author outlines the benefits of collaborative projects, together with the discussion of the issue of student/teacher feedback, as well as provides a number of links to websites dealing with setting up, organising, and running collaborative projects.

The Internet Lesson Plans section provides three lesson plans: "Shopping in Oxford Street" by Linos Viglas from Greece, an interactive virtual shopping tour of one of the most famous London streets; "How fast can it run?" by Anna Wicha from Poland, focusing on asking questions, forming superlatives and using numbers; and "And the Oscar Goes to ... - Our Favourite Movies" by Agnieszka Janczak and Ewa Krzywicka-Dzioch from Poland, where the authors exploit the potential of the Web in getting information about films and talking about preferences.

In A Word from a Techie section, Jarek Krajka gives a step-by-step instruction on how to enhance the class website by adding to it such important features as web statistics, a search engine, a chat room and a dictionary. For some of these, different options are discussed, which can be used depending on the needs of the teacher and the type of Internet-based activities students are most often engaged in.

Finally, Guo Shesen from China reviews "Speech Bank", a website including a number of speeches of distinguished people in .ram or .mp3 formats. The author presents the discussion of the website, with advantages and disadvantages, as well as gives an example activity to illustrate its potential.

At this moment, I would like to express my gratitude to the people thanks to whom this issue of the Journal has come into being, namely editors, contributors, and all people involved in the making of "Teaching English with Technology". My especially great thanks go to Jozsef Horvath, who has been thoroughly and competently reviewing all the article submissions; Maria Jose Luzon Marco, contributing to the Internet and ESP for the last five issues, and Wojciech Korput, without whom the Journal would not have its present shape on the Web. I would like to take this opportunity and thank them for their voluntary work.

I wish you a good reading.